An African American Fight for Respect Essay

For thousands of years women perk up been fighting for umpteen an(prenominal) things, one of the most important cosmos love. Some people may think watch for a charwoman is simply holding the door for her as she walks through, pulling her chair start for her before she is seated, or maybe on the dot standing when she leaves the shelve merely find is so much much than that. Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. Respect is a feeling that set upnot rightful(prenominal) be given to someone, it is a feeling that must be earned, fought for, or rewarded.For the African American woman, respect did not come by so easily no depicted object how hard they fought or even if they earned it. Examples of the African American woman fighting for her respect, has once upon a time been one of the many roots during wholly literary periods. The two works that I chose view as the similar point of respect. The litera ry pieces are Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston and The burnish Purple by Alice Walker. These two works show the same theme of respect for forbidding women and the struggle for it from men.Though both stories take a crap comparisons that could go on for days, they just as well surrender their differences by the way the handle the theme of respect. Alice Walker has been writing stories and poetry for many years. As a alum of Spelman College she was given great opportunities and was given a solid education. Womens rights and respect has evermore been two topics close to Alices heart. It has been said, that Alice Walker expresses the struggles of desolate people, curiously women, and their lives in a racist, sexist, and violent society. Her writings also lean to a greater extent towards the roles of black women through culture and hi taradiddle.On March 3, 2008 Alice Walker was arrested on International Womens Day for crossing the police line at a rall(a)y in front of The White Hous e. Walker has caboodle a standard and has never had any need or necessitate to change it. Of the many stories that Alice Walker has written, the one that stands out the most to me dealing with the female struggle for respect is the story made movie and musical, The Color Purple. The Color Purple, is a story written in 1982 that has won quadruplex awards and recognitions for its not so classy taste and realistic views.Some of these awards being from the Blue Ribbon Awards, Black Movie Awards, Golden Globe Awards, xi nominations during the Oscars, and plenty more. The main characters in The Color Purple, are Celie Harris Johnson and Mister Albert Johnson. Celie has been abused since she was just a young girl she had two children by her father Leonard and she is force to marry Albert, a young widower, by the age of fourteen. During her years of being married to Albert, she is taunted, disrespected, beaten, and abused up until she turns her life close to when she meets Shug A r attling, a well-known(a) Jazz singer, who comes to live with the couple.Shug relegates it upon herself to help Celie raise her self-confidence so she can not only stand up to her husband and demand respect, however to feel beautiful about herself inside and out. By the end of the story, Celie stands up to Avery and is finally reconnected with the family that was once interpreted away from her. Another great black female author who idealisticly carries the theme of respect in her stories is Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston, a graduate of Howard University, was a well-known author during the Harlem Renaissance.Hurston is most known for her renowned literary piece entitled, Their Eyes Were Watching God which caught the eyes of readers around the world. Like Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston has also won multiple awards for her fabulous novels, short stories, and poems. The story Sweat written by Zora Neale Hurston takes place in a smaller all black town located near Orlando, Florida. T his story, like many others with disrespect towards the wife, starts off with husband Sykes taunting his wife Delia by tricking her into thought process that the whip he throws over her shoulders is a snake, knowing she is deadly frighten of them.Throughout the story, Delia deals with infidelity, abuse, rumors, and taunting from her husband. Towards the end of the story, her husband buys a rattlesnake and refuses to take it back where he found it from, knowing his wife is terrified. In the end, that very snake gets loose, bites, and kills him Delia stands their watching him die. The website articlemyriad. com states The reader can speculate on whether or not Delia was too afraid to move to get help for her husband, but it is the general consensus that she purposefully let him die.While you could argue both, if you are sacking to contend that she was just afraid, youd better take a close look at the text before trying to defend your point. whizz of the greatest comparisons in t his story is the lack of respect the husbands have for their wives, a marriage is supposed to be filled with trust, respect, love, and honesty, all of which the two marriages in The Color Purple and Sweat lacked. Although on that point are many comparisons, there were also contrasts in the two stories, although not exactly easy to see to it with a closed estimation.A contrast in these two stories to me that stood out the most were the personalities of the two wives in the stories. In The Color Purple, Celie is abused and taken advantage of, but holds a quiet tongue until the end Delia in Sweat is abused and taken advantage of , but she always speaks her mind and portrays her true feelings towards something. With these two stories I felt it was good to have the personalities of the women who wanted respect to be completely different so that I could correspond and contrast just a bit more clearly.One was more hidden and kept feelings to herself, the other more outgoing and strong er like all women should be. In conclusion, respect for women, especially blacks, has been a subject that will always be discussed and fought for. Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker described the struggle for respect in many similar and different ways. I stated earlier that for thousands of years women have been fighting for many things, one of the most important being respect and that respect was a feeling that cannot just be given to someone, it is a feeling that must be earned, fought for, or rewarded.I am proud of the long way that not only African American women have come, but women all race and I am blessed to have such profound women to look up to. Women in the past who have fought for our rights set a high standard for the rest of us to borrow and I look forward to doing just so. Works Cited 1. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature Second Edition Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Nellie Y. McKay.